Tag: Boyaca

After El Cocuy National Park reopened to visitors earlier this month (complete information here) I started reminiscing about the incredible week I spent in the wild Andean park in December 2011, when it was still entirely open to tourists and the full 5 day trekking circuit was still a possibility. My friend Colin and […]

The stunning El Cocuy National Park, which has been completely closed to visitors since February 2016, is set to reopen, albeit only partially, this Thursday, April 6. After extensive negotiations between the U’Wa indigenous community, who consider the park sacred, and the National Parks office of Colombia it has been announced that sections of […]

It’s become a New Year tradition on the Colombia Travel Blog to write a list of our 10 best destinations in Colombia for the upcoming year – every January we look at the last 12 months of Colombian travel that we have undertaken and the trends that we have noticed and determine 10 amazing […]

Boyacá department (the department just north of Bogotá) isn’t exactly undervisited by tourists and travellers, mainly because it’s home to the iconic pueblo patrimonio of Villa de Leyva, a must-visit spot on many people’s Colombian travel lists (and rightly so, it’s gorgeous). But Boyacá has a huge amount to offer beyond Villa de Leyva, as I found […]

Colombia gained a new idol this past weekend. Nairo Quintana was already incredibly popular in his homeland before he rode to victory in the ‘Vuelta a Espana’ cycling race on Sunday, but his victory has catapulted him to a new level of adoration in Colombia. I’ve even heard people suggest that, at the relatively […]

Yesterday marked the anniversary of the death of Simon Bolivar on December 17th, 1830. Although the man commonly known as ‘The Liberator’ was born in Venezuela (Caracas in 1783), many of Bolivar’s greatest triumphs and disasters took place in what is now Colombia, during and after the Wars of Independence which have made him […]

When you plan travels around Colombia, you often think of getting away from it all…to palm-tree lined beaches, to sultry salsa cities or maybe the Amazon rainforest. I however recently decided to escape to a region actually quite close to Bogotá called Boyacá. What does it have going for it? Well, it is home to […]

Yesterday, Colombia celebrated it’s Independence Day: on July 20th, 1810, independence was declared in Santa Fe de Bogota. The process was by no means easy; the Wars of Independence continued long after this date, and Colombia became part of Gran Colombia (including modern day Venezuela, Panama and Ecuador) in 1819, but, following it’s break-up […]

You’ve probably heard of the Tomatina Festival in Buñol, Spain, before. It’s kind of a big deal. It’s that festival where a crowd of people systematically turn themselves into a giant tomatoey pizza (although not a Colombian pizza, which remain suspiciously tomato-free). It’s basically an excuse to chuck food around and not get in trouble for it. […]